Association between visual impairment and sleep duration in college students: A study conducted in UAE and Lebanon

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether self-reported sleep duration and visual impairment were associated among College students. Participants: Students (n = 1002, age 17–35 years) from Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. Methods: Students were asked to complete a validated questionnaire between October 2018 and May 2019. The questions were related to sociodemographics, lifestyle characteristics, visual impairment status, sleeping pattern, mobile-phone use and chronic conditions. Results: 18.3% of the respondents reported to suffer from visual impairment. Among them, 72.7% were females (p < .001), 65% admitted to frequently use mobile phones before sleeping (p < .001), 54.6% reported to sleep less than 7 h (p = .008) and 71.6% reported to suffer from sleep disturbances (p = .05). Visual impairment was associated with poor sleep quality (p < .001), mobile phone use before sleeping (p < .01) and daily stress (p < .05). Conclusion: Visual impairment in college students is associated with short sleep duration, mobile phone use before sleeping and stress level.

Keywords:

• Cross-sectional
• sleep
• students
• visual impairment

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge AAU, Al Jinan University and the Lebanese University for facilitating the distribution of the questionnaire.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of UAE and Lebanon and received approval from the Ethics committees of AAU and Al Jinan University.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.